London’s average August 1st high, 74; low, 57.

And because the U.S. inherited Savile Row men’s fashion standards, suits and ties are requisite even in Phoenix, Houston or New Orleans, where Saudi robes would be more appropriate for the climate.

Quote Wikipedia: “From 1980 regulations for 30 km/h zones were enacted and have been widely applied. New urban policies have been defined with a view to encouraging a switch from car use to public transport and non-motorised modes (cycling, walking), with the additional condition of lower speeds to improve safety of vulnerable road users, for example national policies such as “Sustainable Safety” in the Netherlands or “Vision Zero” in Sweden.”

A thing I regularly like about the U.S. is how everybody drives real slow in residential areas — 15mph is not so unusual, if I remember it correctly. (And a thing I regularly dislike is the arbitrary and nutty enforcement of low highway speed limits, but that’s off topic). Why worry about the UK all the time?

Now to my point. I think I have mentioned it before here, but this is an excellent example of the problem of safety enforcement by government. There is no cost to them for lowering the speed limit, but much value. They get revenues, can claim to have saved lives, and can campaign on the fact that they “care”.

The problem is that no one did the math on all the TIME wasted. Just being alive HAS NO VALUE. What difference is it to you that you are kept alive in a coma for 60 years vs. being dead? Time spent in a car going 20 mph isn’t much better than being in a coma. It’s a tiny little jail sentence. Certainly, I am overstating the case, but I have to or no one will get it.

At some ratio, the time lost by millions in an attempt to save a single life will become a losing proposition. We all make this calculation everyday (in reverse) when we don’t give all our money to food charities for starving people.

Government bodies have learned they can tax everyone just a little, and get away with it. Mostly, they do this because they have failed to educate the populations they serve on the true values of freedom. The 20mph limit is nothing more than a tax on freedom instead of a tax on money.

Just wait until they figure out how to tax your soul – or have they already?

Given the braking systems on modern cars, even with British pedestrians being so very close to the cars (tiny roads, sidewalks “paths” right next to roads) 20 mph is TOO SLOW.

It’s a revenue generating scheme. And I use “scheme” in the American sense (as in, the BAD connotation of the word “plot”) not the British sense (as in “plan or design”).

(I lived in the UK for 9 years out of my life, and returned home to Michigan 15 years ago, so probably by now, the pints of milk are now called whatever the metric equivalent is).

Generally speaking, the milk is fine because rarely do you see morning temperatures in excess of 60 degrees anywhere in the UK. In fact, over 70 by noon time is considered a “very sunny and hot day”. If you get 70 degrees for more than about 10 days, then the government decrees a water shortage, bans watering your lawn/washing your cars, and after about 15 days, if it is dry/no rain, some places put stand pipes in the street and turns off the water to all the houses.

You can’t make this stuff up. It’s all true.

FWIW 20 mph is not a very comfortable speed in either of our 5-speed vehicles. Throttle tip-in, shift points, etc. Guess a CVT would be the better choice for vehicles that need to crawl around the neighborhood.

We have a 25 mph neighborhood speed limit but some of our neighbors don’t live by that now. One neighbor came blasting out of the ‘hood this morning at 50 mph with his cold Hyundai making some unhappy sounds.

One good benefit to the high fuel prices is that the lead foots in traffic have been restraining themselves. Big trucks, vans and V-8 cars are launching a little more gently around here more often.